Biocapitalism - What Price the Genetic Revolution?

Hal Harris | Mon, 12/01/1997 - 00:00

As humankind grabs control of its own genes, as well as those of the animals and plants with which we share Earth, a plethora of ethical questions must be faced - ignoring them for the time being does not mean they are avoided. In this essay, David Shenk explores just a few of them, and the ones on which he focuses are almost exclusively those related to gene-based medicine and human reproduction. We need not await the completion of the genome mapping project to glimpse a future in which the traits of offspring are selected in advance by parents. These choices will be made available first (and perhaps only) to those able to afford them. Can the Jeffersonian ideal of "all men are created equal" survive a technology that explicitly loads the genetic dice?